Strong Coffee
by VG LittleBear
Summary: One shot - Tag to "Neverland" s12 ep.24 - Tony relives the drama of the shooting - (angst/family) - Dialogue: Tony DiNozzo, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Joanna Teague - SPOILER warning: 12x24 "Neverland", 12x23 "The Lost Boys".


Disclaimer: The following story is a work of fiction. The characters are borrowed from the CBS network show NCIS for personal entertainment purposes only. No profit is or shall be made from this fan tribute to the show which is owned by TPTB. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.

 **Set in time:** NCIS 2015, a tag to "Neverland", season 12, episode 24

Spoiler warning: 12×24 "Neverland", 12×23 "The Lost Boys"

Main characters: Tony DiNozzo, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, Joanna Teague

 _ **A/N: Please bear with me, it's going to stay canon as much as possible. This one-shot has no connection with other tags I've written on the same subject.**_

* * *

 **Strong Coffee**

(by VG LittleBear/vglb)

* * *

DiNozzo is on the phone when a shot rings out. Automatically his eyes seek out Gibbs, and sees him fall forward, then somehow struggle back to his knees. Tony is already moving when a second shot rings out, and this time Gibbs falls on his back. By the time Tony pushes through the throng of panicked people who block his way, the shooter has disappeared.

Tony's eyes are drawn to the legs that Gibbs keeps moving about, apparently the only way of expressing the agony he's in. The pant leg over his left knee is red, showing a bullet entry wound. Tony stares at it a moment, noticing that Gibbs moves this leg marginally slower than the other. Gibbs shouldn't be moving that knee at all unless another injury so bad has made the pain of this insignificant compared to the other. It leaves Tony with a dread premonition as he raises his eyes up Jethro's body.

The shirt Gibbs had donned earlier over an olive green T-shirt he certainly must have grabbed at a military surplus sale was ruined by a splotch of red that keeps spreading farther even as DiNozzo looks on. While glad at a totally irrelevant level that the outer garment was ready for the slush pile, Tony quickly unbuttons the no longer white shirt and discovers the wound much too close to Gibbs' heart. This explained why his friend was holding himself so unmoving anywhere but his legs: arms flung wide, bloodless lips half open, and eyes blinking slowly, scaring Tony badly.

Slipping out of his new windbreaker - the height of fashion, and most likely a total loss now - Tony turns it inside-out without hesitation, folds it tight, then starts pressing it against Gibbs' chest wound. At his touch the older man jerks violently under Tony's hands.

"Boss! Stay with me!"

For a second the grey-blue tinted eyes lock with Tony's dirt green. The shadows of death already firmly entrenched in Gibbs' face, Tony recognizes that there is no point in adding to the suffering. Instead he pulls his mentor, his friend into his lap, and catches Jethro's limp hands in his.

While CI-JoAnna - such glorious opportunities to tease Dornie, if only he had not died in Egypt! - calls for help and medical assistance, Tony concentrates on just holding Gibbs, who momentarily relaxes against Tony as his heartbeat slows even more.

Tony bends his head over Gibbs' temple and presses a butterfly light kiss against the elder's stern features. Slightly reviving, Gibbs opens his eyes once more, and whispers to Tony:

"It's all yours now, son! Keep each other safe!"

Sinking down in an exhausted heap, Gibbs rests against Tony's muscular tighs once more. It's not the first time Tony holds the hand of a dying colleague, but Gibbs means so much more to him.

"Boss!" he whispers, then tenderly "Jethro?" even as he feels for a pulse. The feet no longer move, nor does Jethro's chest.

* * *

A strong smell of Marine strength coffee nudged Tony back into awareness. Joanna Teague stood beside his chair in a room dimly lit by machinery blinking at him, and Tony was profoundly glad to realise that his hands were wrapped around a warm living hand belonging to Gibbs. The heart monitor showed a strong even beat, and Tony realized he'd been remembering only part of the fearsome scenario correctly in his half-dream. The second bullet never came near Gibbs' heart. And of course Tony had never stopped pressing down on the wound, until the Marines picked them up, their corpsmen taking charge of Gibbs.

"I reported to my superiors, and your Director Vance. Tomorrow I will take up the trail again, Daniel Budd and his cohort of youths will not escape the CIA! I'll spell you now, while you make your own report to the Director, Agent DiNozzo! Go, you need to let him know that you wish to return with Agent Gibbs as soon as he's recovered enough for medical evacuation!"

When no immediate action follows Officer Teague's words, the woman who had just lost her son looks down on the hands hooded over the older Agent's hand.

"I now see what Ned meant when he admired your relationship with your father. Ned used to sit like that beside the woman who raised him when she was sick. I'd hoped one day for that closeness to be mine, too."

Tony got up slowly and held the chair for Joanna Teague as he answered her.

"Ned and I shared the loss of a parent at an early age. He had the good fortune to have a loving family that sheltered him growing up. You were doing just fine by him. Every relationship is different. Leroy Jethro Gibbs is the essence of a father. Gibbs has been there for me a long time, and without him Senior would still be wondering how to be a father to me. He wants to be, he's just not very consistent."

As Tony went to get his tablet to set up a skype conference with Director Vance (courtesy of Tim, who'd added it to his go-bag for just such a purpose), he wondered if Gibbs had known about Ned's awesome alter ego Gilroy Lipps that had so impressed the seasoned Agents outside MTAC. Obviously Ned had greatly admired Gibbs, and had chosen him as his role model in how to present himself; fortunately without going functionally mute like their beloved leader tended to be.

He could only hope that Gibbs would come through this ordeal to return to his post. Tony could hardly wait for 'The Calling' to be history.

* * *

\- finis -

 _ **A/N: Wouldn't you think that while it was happening for real, DiNozzo didn't think of fashion statements? Well okay, he might, it's Tony!**_


End file.
